Combat

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Epic dragons share all the combat characteristics of standard dragons. Even wyrmling epic dragons are Huge, however, and are capable of making tail sweep and crush attacks. Although there is no size category larger than Colossal, the oldest epic dragons deal more damage with their attacks than other Colossal dragons, as shown on the Epic Dragon Face and Reach and Epic Dragon Attacks tables below. In addition, the breath weapon of the oldest epic dragons is a larger cone than most Colossal dragons possess. The size modifier for these dragons remains -8.

A dragon attacks with its powerful claws and bite, and can also use a breath weapon and special physical attacks, depending on its size. It prefers to fight on the wing, staying out of reach until it has worn down the enemy with ranged attacks. Older, more intelligent dragons are adept at sizing up the opposition and eliminating the most dangerous foes first (or avoiding them while picking off weaker enemies).

The table below provides space and reach statistics for dragons of various sizes, plus the natural weapons a dragon of a certain size can employ and the damage those attacks deal.

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Bite: Bite attacks deal the indicated damage plus the dragon's Strength bonus. A dragon also can use its bite to snatch opponents if it has the Snatch feat.

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Claw: Claw attacks deal the indicated damage plus 1/2 the dragon's Strength bonus (round down). The dragon also can use its claws to snatch opponents if it has the Snatch feat. Claw attacks are secondary attacks, requiring a -5 penalty on the attack roll. (Many dragons choose the Multiattack feat to lessen this penalty to -2).

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Wing: The dragon can slam opponents with its wings, even when flying. Wing attacks deal the indicated damage plus 1/2 the dragon's Strength bonus (round down) and are treated as secondary attacks.

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Tail Slap: The dragon can slap one opponent each round with its tail. A tail slap deals the indicated damage plus 1-1/2 times the dragon's Strength bonus (round down) and is treated as a secondary attack.

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Crush (Ex): This special attack allows a flying or jumping dragon of at least Huge size to land on opponents as a standard action, using its whole body to crush them. Crush attacks are effective only against opponents three or more size categories smaller than the dragon (though it can attempt normal overrun or grapple attacks against larger opponents).

A crush attack affects as many creatures as can fit under the dragon's body. Creatures in the affected area must succeed on a Reflex save (DC equal to that of the dragon's breath weapon) or be pinned, automatically taking bludgeoning damage during the next round unless the dragon moves off them. If the dragon chooses to maintain the pin, treat it as a normal grapple attack. Pinned opponents take damage from the crush each round if they don't escape.

Tail Sweep (Ex): This special attack allows a dragon of at least Gargantuan size to sweep with its tail as a standard action. The sweep affects a half-circle with a radius of 30 feet (or 40 feet for a Colossal dragon), extending from an intersection on the edge of the dragon's space in any direction. Creatures within the swept area are affected if they are four or more size categories smaller than the dragon. A tail sweep automatically deals the indicated damage plus 1-1/2 times the dragon's Strength bonus (round down). Affected creatures can attempt Reflex saves to take half damage (DC equal to that of the dragon's breath weapon).

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Grappling:Dragons do not favor grapple attacks, though their crush attack (and Snatch feat, if they know it) use normal grapple rules. A dragon can always use its breath weapon while grappling, as well as its spells and spell-like or supernatural abilities, provided it succeeds on Concentration checks.

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Breath Weapon (Su): Using a breath weapon is a standard action. Once a dragon breathes, it can't breathe again until 1d4 rounds later. If a dragon has more than one type of breath weapon, it still can breathe only once every 1d4 rounds. A blast from a breath weapon always starts at any intersection adjacent to the dragon and extends in a direction of the dragon's choice, with an area as noted on the table below. If the breath weapon deals damage, creatures caught in the area can attempt Reflex saves to take half damage; the DC depends on the dragon's age and variety, and is given in each individual entry. Saves against nondamaging breath weapons use the same DC; the kind of saving throw is noted in the variety descriptions. The save DC against a breath weapon is 10 + 1/2 dragon's HD + dragon's Con modifier.

Breath weapons come in two basic shapes, line and cone, whose areas vary with the dragon's size.

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Frightful Presence (Ex): A young adult or older dragon can unsettle foes with its mere presence. The ability takes effect automatically whenever the dragon attacks, charges, or flies overhead. Creatures within a radius of 30 feet x the dragon's age category are subject to the effect if they have fewer HD than the dragon. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 dragon's HD + dragon's Cha modifier) remains immune to that dragon's frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Dragons ignore the frightful presence of other dragons.

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Spells: A dragon knows and casts arcane spells as a sorcerer of the level indicated in its variety description, gaining bonus spells for a high Charisma score. Some dragons can also cast spells from the cleric list or cleric domain lists as arcane spells.

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Spell-Like Abilities: A dragon's spell-like abilities depend on its age and variety. It gains the abilities indicated for its age plus all previous ones. Its age category or its sorcerer caster level, whichever is higher, is the caster level for these abilities. The save DC is 10 + dragon's Cha modifier + spell level. All spell-like abilities are usable once per day unless otherwise noted.

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Damage Reduction: Young adult and older dragons have damage reduction. Their natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

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Immunities (Ex): All dragons have immunity to sleep and paralysis effects. Each variety of dragon has immunity to one or two additional forms of attack no matter what its age, as given in its description.

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Spell Resistance (Ex): As dragons age, they become more resistant to spells and spell-like abilities, as indicated in the variety descriptions.

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Blindsense (Ex):Dragons can pinpoint creatures within a distance of 60 feet. Opponents the dragon can't actually see still have total concealment against the dragon.

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Keen Senses (Ex): A dragon sees four times as well a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision out to 120 feet.

Epic Dragon Breath Weapons

Wyrmling epic dragons possess certain abilities that common dragons do not acquire until later in life, including frightful presence, spellcasting, and spell resistance. An epic dragon with a caster level above 20th gains the Improved Spell Capacity feat as a bonus feat once for every three caster levels above 20th. Any epic dragon can choose epic feats for which it otherwise meets the prerequisites. Epic dragons also have access to dragon feats, as well as the additional feats described in this book.

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Empower Spell-Like Ability: An epic dragon can apply the Empower Spell feat to one of its spell-like abilities that it can use at least twice per day. If the dragon has limited use of the spell-like ability, the empowered ability uses up two uses of the ability. If the dragon can use the ability at will, there is no cost for empowering the ability. The dragon does not need to specify a spell-like ability when it chooses this feat; it can apply the feat to any spell-like ability it possesses.

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Maximize Spell-Like Ability: The dragon can apply the Maximize Spell feat to one of its spell-like abilities that it can use at least three times per day. If the dragon has limited use of the spell-like ability, the maximized ability uses up three uses of the ability. If the dragon can use the ability at will, there is no cost for maximizing the ability. The dragon does not need to specify a spell-like ability when it chooses this feat; it can apply the feat to any spell-like ability it possesses.

A force dragon's natural weapons are treated as magic (wyrmling - juvenile) or epic (young adult - great wyrm) for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Combat

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Breath Weapon (Su): A force dragon has one type of breath weapon, a cone of force that tears through creatures and objects in its area to devastating effect.

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Immune to Force (Ex): A force dragon cannot be harmed by any force effect, including magic missiles, explosive runes, mage's sword, the sphere spells, or any other spell or effect with the Force descriptor. It can move freely through barriers made of force, such as a wall of force.

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Deflecting Force (Su): A force dragon is protected by a shield of force that provides a deflection bonus to its AC. The deflection bonus is equal to the dragon's Charisma bonus.

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Blur (Su): When a force dragon reaches juvenile age, the force surrounding its body distorts the light around it so that it is hard to discern the dragon's exact location. This functions as a continuous blur spell, giving the dragon concealment (20% miss chance).

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Displacement (Su): An old force dragon's deflecting force bends light even more ex-tremely, giving the dragon the benefit of the displacement spell (50% miss chance). This supersedes its blur ability.

A prismatic dragon's natural weapons are treated as magic (wyrmling - juvenile) or epic (young adult - great wyrm) for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Combat

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Breath Weapon (Su): A prismatic dragon has one type of breath weapon, a prismatic spray effect. The breath weapon's cone is of the size indicated by the dragon's size, not the normal cone for the spell.

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Deflecting Force (Su): A prismatic dragon is protected by a shield of shimmering light similar to a cloak of chaos that provides a deflection bonus to its AC. The deflection bonus is equal to the dragon's Charisma bonus.

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Immune to Light and Blindness (Ex):Prismatic dragons cannot be harmed by any light, including Evocation [Light] spells, searing light, and the various prismatic (sphere, spray, wall) spells. In addition, they are immune to any spell or effect that causes blindness.

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No worries, Paul. I'm not taking any of this personally at all and I completely understand your point of view. I sometimes take for granted that I'm always tied to a computer for my job so I get to post a lot. This is also my first foray into Play By Post and I might be a bit too eager, so I will do better about being patient and slow down some. Maybe I'll post more in side stories or something. Pretty sure I almost died inside during the combat rounds waiting for a couple folks to post for over 24 hours per round.

And Perry is definitely feeling the cold shoulder from the Blaze right now. It's understandable to be sure, given the circumstances, but only to a certain extent. From his point of view, he's been nothing but honest and upfront and has tried to help as best as he can. I'm still trying to piece together his thoughts on the matter exactly which will hopefully make for some good roleplaying later. Don't worry, he will have some words for Poljen and everyone else pretty soon too.